Finding evidence in the text is such an important skill. I mean let's face it. If students always went back into the text and found the answer, they would be getting near perfect scores!
I think it just takes a lot of practice. Like. A lot. And some of them don't love it.
I get it. My students read a text and answer the questions. They THINK they know all the answers so asking them to go back and do another step, ugh. I can the grumbles and groans from here.
I really like the students to stay sharp on this skill so I have been using task cards. They are a quick and efficient way for students to practice showing where they found their answer. These can be completed in just 10 minutes. How many times have you needed or wanted to fill up just ten minutes of time? Yes, we have ALL been there.
These task cards all have short reading passages. They vary from non-fiction to fiction, single paragraphs, to multi-paragraphs. They also all have skill based questions, such as main idea, inference, author's purpose, ect. Students read the passage and answer the questions. To answer the questions, they need to go back and find their answers using highlighters or markers in the text. I have them use a different color for each question so that. In addition to finding the answer, I have them write out a COMPLETE response. This includes the question restated. Another bonus skill!
I really like to keep a good stack of these on hand to pull out and use weekly. They are also fantastic for small group and RTI work. I pull students and review the cards if they weren't getting the right answers. Each year I also seem to have a few who struggle with restating the question when writing a complete answer so I use these questions to fine tune that skill as well.
Above is a sample of a completed task card.
If you would like the complete set of these task cards CLICK HERE
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